Oblique didactics: Innovating the ludic experience in kindergarten to promote pedagogical training - RUA
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Proceeding
Supplementary Issue: Spring Conferences of Sports Science. Costa Blanca Sports Science Events, 19-20 June 2020. Alicante, Spain.
Oblique didactics: Innovating the ludic experience
in kindergarten to promote pedagogical training
DAVIDE DI PALMA 1 , PATRIZIA BELFIORE
Parthenope University, Naples, Italy
ABSTRACT
The ludic experience through the discovery of body and movement in kindergarten is represented by an
experience of fundamental importance for the pedagogical development of children. Also, in this case, it is
necessary to research for innovative didactic proposals that motivate the children and lay the foundations for
an effective training course. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, with a sample of children aged between
4 and 6 years, oblique-type didactics that can be used to evaluate the training progress obtainable through
this innovative approach, and to hypothesize its use in kindergarten.
Keywords: Oblique didactics; Didactic innovation; Kindergarten; Experimental pedagogy; Playful-Motor;
Pedagogical development.
Cite this article as:
Di Palma, D. & Belfiore, P. (2020). Oblique didactics: Innovating the ludic experience in kindergarten to
promote pedagogical training. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 15(3proc), S531-S538.
doi:https://doi.org/10.14198/jhse.2020.15.Proc3.06
1
Corresponding author. Parthenope University, Naples, Italy.
E-mail: davide.dipalma@uniparthenope.it
Supplementary Issue: Spring Conferences of Sports Science. Costa Blanca Sports Science Events, 19-20 June 2020. Alicante,
Spain.
JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE ISSN 1988-5202
© Faculty of Education. University of Alicante
doi:10.14198/jhse.2020.15.Proc3.06
VOLUME 15 | Proc3 | 2020 | S531Di Palma, et al. / Oblique didactics JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE
INTRODUCTION
Children play with their body and learn new things by means of it. The activities that focus on corporeity and
movement are manifold, and almost all of them are related to the concepts of motor skills, motor education,
pedagogy and didactics of movement and psychomotricity.
Motor skills refer to the set of functioning mechanisms of the central and peripheral apparatus and structures
of the human organism; they play a fundamental role in the early stages of the child's development, since
they represent the way in which the child learns about both the surrounding environment and his or her
possibilities of action (Bertagna, 2004; Boyce, Coker & Bunker, 2006; Coco, 2014; Quennerstedt, Öhman &
Armour, 2014).
On the other hand, we could say that motor education has a double meaning: the first refers to the contribution
made by the movement experiences to the comprehensive pedagogical shaping of the individual's
personality, while the second refers strictly to the school subject, which is still erroneously referred to as
"physical education". In this second definition, two macro-directions of the didactic-educational process could
be identified (Ascione, Di Palma, Rosa, 2019; Di Palma & Ascione, 2020; Di Palma, Maulini, Ascione, 2020):
1. Learning to move - which includes, for example, learning motor and mimic-gestural skills, increasing
knowledge about the activities carried out and developing perceptive, coordination and conditional
skills;
2. Moving to learn- which is promoted not only through the identification of specific objectives in the
motor field, but also by means of educational values.
Psychomotricity can be understood as a specific activity, but also as a cross-sectoral approach that
emphasizes and enhances the synergy between movement and mental image, action and inner world, action
and intentionality, all considered in a perspective of personal and social integration of the individual. Over
time, the term has undergone a significant transformation, until reaching the current educational meaning it
is attached today (Dumitru, 2018; Formenti, 2006; Mas & Castellà, 2016; Vayer, 1992). Psychomotricity deals
with certain educational and pedagogical aspects within the child, such as:
− The perception and structuring of space and time as fundamental elements in perceiving the
dimension of reality;
− The pro-verbal game and the motor sense in the discovery of reality and in self-expression;
− The development of the symbolic game in the shaping of thoughts and identity;
− The development of socialization in the different stages of growth.
When the adult decides to propose psychomotor experiences, he or she defines situations that favour the
integration of several components such as that operational, emotional, motor and cognitive. All psychomotor
proposals consider the dimensions through which the individual expresses himself/herself to be closely
interconnected:
− Physical-functional dimension, which refers to corporeity in the strict sense;
− Cognitive dimension, which is not linked to the simple given movement;
− Affective-relational dimension, promoted by movement, which can also convey other meanings;
Obviously, depending on the objectives and goals to be achieved, a specific psychomotor model is chosen
based on one or more of the above-mentioned dimensions. An interesting model that particularly attracted
our attention, and on which we based our project, is that worked out by Bernard Aucouturier (Aucouturier,
S532 | 2020 | Proc3 | VOLUME 15 © 2020 University of AlicanteDi Palma, et al. / Oblique didactics JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE
2005), which takes into account the connection between the physical-functional and the affective-relational
dimensions. The author mainly intends to pursue these objectives:
− Encouraging people to express their inner world;
− Fostering the development of the symbolic function through the pleasure of action and game;
− Supporting the development of reassurance processes through the adult's empathy and the game.
The aspect that most impressed us about the author is that, although focusing on two of the three dimensions
of the individual, he also took into account the cognitive sphere, with the further objective of encouraging the
development of the distancing processes in children which lead them to operational thinking. In this way, this
theoretical approach turns into a potential didactic and formative model to be adopted in practice, in order to
foster children's growth. This model is based on the concept of obliquity, or rather on oblique didactics.
Obliquity is defined as a context of action in which all the subjects can work according to "their own level",
i.e. according to their own characteristics, and can enjoy their own self-value. A situation is considered oblique
when all the members of a group, while doing different things, feel that they are engaged in the same activity
simultaneously and that they respond adequately to the adult's requests, which would not happen if the adult
let the subjects do different activities. In this regard, an experimental didactic and pedagogical project is
proposed in order to evaluate the educational effectiveness of an oblique didactic proposal in kindergarten,
oriented to recreational-motor activities.
EXPERIMENTAL DIDACTIC-PEDAGOGICAL PROJECT IN KINDERGARTEN
After this short theoretical introduction, in which the concepts of motor skills, motor education, psychomotricity
and oblique approach have been expressed, we will now move on to presenting our project.
It all started by observing a group of children who were little stimulated and interested in playing traditional
games, which included pre-set unidirectional paths. Based on what we observed, we opted for a new didactic
proposal based on the concept of obliquity. It is necessary to underline the innovative nature of this choice,
given that there are very few references in the literature related to oblique psychomotor activity; nevertheless,
it seemed appropriate to focus attention on a new approach that would differ from all those we already knew,
thanks to its ability to connect the experience of the movement to the positive idea of the self, coinciding with
self-efficacy.
Thanks to a cultural sports association operating in kindergartens, which employed psychomotor activities
among the various courses, we managed to involve a group of 10 children of both sexes aged between 4
and 6 years, meeting them twice a week for a month, for a total of 8 meetings.
We proposed them 3 types of activities that would improve their basic motor patterns (including jumping) and
involve them fully in the construction phase of the activity, through the use of poor materials to be reinvented.
These "poor" materials, in technical terms, are defined as unstructured materials that do not have a specific
functionality in relation to motor and psychomotor activity; however, they are somehow “borrowed" from other
areas to stimulate divergent body-motor experiences.
It is important to point out that the order in which the proposed activities are described is not random: in terms
of difficulty, they were carried out from the easiest to the most difficult in order to monitor and evaluate, in the
best way possible, the children's motor evolution promoted by the innovative oblique psychomotor
educational approach.
VOLUME 15 | Proc3 | 2020 | S533Di Palma, et al. / Oblique didactics JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE
Table 1. The didactic activities of the experimental proposal.
1st PROPOSED ACTIVITY: "Jump bravely!"
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY The activity involved arranging a rope, which was
attached onto a low support on one side, whilst the
other side was attached to a slightly higher support,
so that an oblique line was created. The children
were asked to place themselves at any point on the
rope and to jump with both feet to reach the
opposite side. During the game, the educator let the
children freely choose the position to jump on,
encouraged the less reckless ones to jump little by
little to the highest points of the rope, and always
tried to give new stimuli to those who already
possessed better motor skills.
METHODOLOGICAL-DIDACTIC NOTES During this activity, children were stimulated
through vocal inputs to experiment with and explore
the motor scheme of jumping, and to acquire
greater awareness of their own capabilities by
challenging their own limits.
MATERIALS USED Recycled rope
2nd PROPOSED ACTIVITY: "Moosgummi islets"
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY The activity required the educator to set up several
moosgummi stations in the game area, and a big
paperboard representing the point of arrival. The
children were asked to jump autonomously onto
the different moosgummies stations, which were
amusingly called islets, in order to reach the finish
line in the fastest way. During the game the
educator encouraged the children to choose the
best path to take.
METHODOLOGICAL-DIDACTIC NOTES During this activity, the children were stimulated to
experiment with and explore space, improve the
motor scheme of jumping and learn the concept of
time, by encouraging them to jump onto as few
islands as possible.
MATERIALS USED Moosgummi (craft foam), paperboard.
3rd PROPOSED ACTIVITY: "The little paper clouds"
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY The activity required children to be provided with
two sheets of newspaper: one was used for the
starting point and the other was placed at the most
suitable distance for the child so that they could
move forward and recover the starting point, in
order to reuse it in the next step. It was required to
use the two sheets as if they were clouds, so as to
S534 | 2020 | Proc3 | VOLUME 15 © 2020 University of AlicanteDi Palma, et al. / Oblique didactics JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE
create a path to jump onto and get to the other side
of the game area as quickly as possible. The
educator could first show the children how to create
the path, due to the difficulty of the activity, and then
encourage them to do it on their own.
METHODOLOGICAL-DIDACTIC NOTES During this activity the children were stimulated to
experiment with and explore the motor pattern of
jumping, acquire self-perception in space and
manage distances.
MATERIALS USED Sheet of newspaper.
STRUCTURE OF THE EVALUATION PROCESS
Our research work, just as it should be, is closely related to a structured evaluation process aimed at
identifying the training evolution, and therefore the effectiveness, of the innovative proposal. By definition,
evaluation is understood as the acquisition of elements allowing to verify the effectiveness of an educational-
motor intervention. For this project, we proposed two types of activities to children: one based on traditional
exercises and the other based on motor games linked to the concept of obliquity. The first typology was
carried out in the initial phase of the project, with subsequent evaluation to verify which were their starting
skills; the second typology was implemented immediately after the first one, and remained unchanged until
the end of the project; it ended with an evaluation phase to verify any improvements attained by the children
thanks to this new approach. To do this, we made use not only of direct observation, but also of new
technologies such as tablets and smartphones. All this in order to be able to record our meetings and review
them afterwards, so that we could carefully analyse everything that could be of interest to us. Technically, to
describe and analyse the level of each subject, we used an evaluation grid based on four key themes:
knowledge, skills, abilities and interest (each one closely related to the didactic and pedagogical meaning of
motor and sports sciences), consistent with the set objectives. Each theme was assigned a score from 1 to
6, and each corresponded to the established requirements. Table 2 shows the above.
Table 2. Evaluation scheme for assigning a score.
SCORE KNOWLEDGE SKILLS ABILITIES INTEREST
Cannot evaluate and
Shows no basic put into practice even Not gifted with Shows rejection of
1 the simplest motor
motor schemes motor skills the subject
actions
Shows poor motor
Fragmentarily Cannot apply the motor skills and Shows completely
2 reworks basic motor actions and carry out insufficient uninterested in the
schemes group work understanding of subject
the rules
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Cannot analyse and Shows partial
evaluate the action and imprecise
carried out and its design of the
outcome. Makes motor
Shows incorrect Shows partial
3 mistakes even when sequences.
motor expression interest
supported Fragmentarily
understands
rules and
techniques
Stores, selects and Grasps the
Can evaluate and
uses meaning of the
apply motor sequences Shows sufficient
4 implementation rules sufficiently
in a sufficient but not interest
modalities, even if by relating to
autonomous way
superficially. space and time.
Can manage
Can adapt to changing
situations
Shows good motor situations, and can
autonomously, Shows interest and
5 adaptability to the apply motor sequences
understands and attentiveness
motor sequence both sufficiently and
stores techniques
autonomously
correctly
Masters both
conceptual
elaboration and
Shows autonomous motor
expression and Critically and confidently experience by Shows particular
excellent adaptability deals with the rules and designing the interest and makes
6 to the motor problems, and creatively most suitable personal
sequence with very searches for innovative technical- contributions to the
good performance solutions tactical lesson
skills solutions for the
situation
autonomously
and quickly
OUTCOMES AND OBSERVATIONS
Ex-ante evaluation
After getting to know the children during the first meeting, in the following one we gave start the project by
evaluating the group, according to the first type of activity proposed (i.e. the one based on classic games and
the traditional didactic approach). The outcomes obtained for each child are shown in Table 3.
As we can see, particularly relevant are the outcomes reached by subject no. 6 and subject no. 8; the former
obtained a minimum score for 3 of the 4 themes analysed, while the latter, on the contrary, obtained a very
high score for all 4 themes analysed. On the whole, the sample group analysed showed:
− A minimum level of knowledge.
− A poor level of skills.
− A skills level that varies between minimum and poor.
S536 | 2020 | Proc3 | VOLUME 15 © 2020 University of AlicanteDi Palma, et al. / Oblique didactics JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE
− A satisfactory level of interest in only 4 of the 10 subjects examined.
Table 3. Ex-ante evaluation outcomes.
Subject
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Knowledge 3 2 3 2 2 1 3 4 3 2
Skills 3 4 3 3 4 2 3 4 4 3
Abilities 3 2 3 3 3 1 3 4 4 2
Interest 2 3 5 1 4 1 2 4 5 3
Ex-post evaluation
In the eighth and last meeting the group was evaluated again after the experimental didactic proposal, based
on games and motor activities linked to the innovative concept of obliquity. The outcomes reached by each
child are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Ex-post evaluation outcomes.
Subject
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Knowledge 5 4 5 3 4 3 5 6 4 3
Skills 5 5 5 3 4 3 3 5 5 4
Abilities 4 4 5 3 4 2 4 6 4 3
Interest 5 5 6 4 5 4 5 6 6 5
As we can see, the level attained by each subject in the different themes analysed definitely increased
compared to the initial phase of the project. As for the subjects that in the ex-ante evaluation had obtained
extremely relevant and opposite results, we found out that subject n. 6, i.e. the one that started from a
minimum level, recorded a considerable growth especially as regards the interest in the proposed activity;
subject n. 8, i.e. the one that started from a very high level compared to the average, reached the highest
score in 3 themes out of 4. The theme that gave us particular satisfaction at the evaluation level was the one
concerning the interest; it could be said that, without this element, learning (and therefore the improvement
of the different focuses) would be extremely difficult and slower. A comprehensive analysis of the class group
showed a clear improvement in all the items analysed.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
As evidenced by the outcomes of the ex-post evaluation, the oblique didactic approach proved to be effective
and of great impact in the motor, motivational, relational and experiential fields, leading the children to a
formative and pedagogical growth by acquiring greater awareness of themselves, their skills and
potentialities. In addition, a remarkable feedback was also received from the less daring children with respect
to motor activity, since they acquired both greater confidence and desire to learn, showing a strong
willingness to continue working with this methodology. Nowadays, we are in a world in continuous evolution
from all points of view, making it necessary to update didactics so that the educational contexts have a future-
oriented dynamism. For this reason, the research work carried out is part of that sphere of the experimental
pedagogical sciences that investigates the most effective and appropriate educational proposals, especially
for students attending kindergarten and primary school; it is in that period that the foundations for structuring
one's own future personal identity are laid. The experimental work performed, being oriented to a new didactic
VOLUME 15 | Proc3 | 2020 | S537Di Palma, et al. / Oblique didactics JOURNAL OF HUMAN SPORT & EXERCISE
proposal in the motor field, can be an excellent starting point for creating and implementing innovative didactic
protocols to be put in place both in non-formal educational contexts, such as those of associative and
recreational-motor nature, but above all in formal ones too, like that of scholastic nature.
CONTRIBUTIONS
The manuscript is the result of a collective work by the authors, the specific contribution of which is to be
referred to as follows: The “Introduction” and “Concluding Remarks” are to be attributed to Patrizia Belfiore,
“Experimental Didactic-Pedagogical Project in Kindergarten” – “Structure of the Evaluation Process” –
“Outcomes and Observations” to Davide Di Palma.
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